Frugal Living and Early Retirement

News We spent October in Big Pine, California, a small town (around 2,000 people) near the Eastern Sierras. We chose it for its proximity to various fall color locations and Yosemite, where we camped for a few nights near the end of the month. It has been a long time since we visited Yosemite and it was great to go back. Kara took a watercolor class for two days while Stephen was up getting sunrise shots. On the second to last day, it rained quite a bit in Yosemite Valley. This turned out to be a major ...

News September was much less chaotic than August. After packing up for yet another move, we spent a week in Iowa with Kara’s Mom, and got to spend time with her Dad and Stepmom as well. Next we boarded Chiqui with our Iowa vet, and headed to Toronto to spend three weeks with Stephen’s brother and his wife and kids, who are one and three. Stephen’s Dad also flew in from Seoul for a week. It’s fun to see Grandpa with the kids since he doesn’t get to see them very often. The exciting news at the end ...

News August was full of the unexpected, and nothing really went as planned, which is okay. We have the flexibility to deal with it. We got to Santa Fe on August 1 and moved in to a little 400 square-foot house/apartment we found on Airbnb. Although it was small, it was just perfect for our needs, and it was in a great location for walking all over. It was in walking distance of downtown, as well as Trader Joe’s. We decided to visit Santa Fe to evaluate it as a possible retirement location. I'll ...

Like a lot of young people, I had credit card debt when I was in my 20’s. I threw away a lot of money by paying interest. But the solution to this problem is not cutting up credit cards or freezing them in a block of ice. Instead, it’s important to develop the discipline to use credit cards properly so that you can take advantage of all the benefits. 1. Using credit cards helps build your credit rating. When you are ready to buy a car or a house, it will be very difficult if you don’t have a credit ...